Introduction:-
Language is a species specific and species uniform possession of man It is God’s special gift to mankind. It distinguishes the homo-sapiens from all other creature. Without language human civilization, as we now know it, would have remained impossibility. Language is ubiquitous. It is present everywhere––in our thoughts and dreams, prayers and meditations, relations and communication. Besides being a means of communication, and storehouse of knowledge, it is an instrument of thinking as well as a source of delight (e.g. singing).
It transfers knowledge from one person to another and from one generation to another. Language is also the maker or unmaker of human relationships. It is the use of language that ‘Italics a life bitter or sweet. Without language man would have remained only a dumb animal. It is our ability to communicate through words that makes us different from animals. Because of its omnipresence, language is often taken for granted. Language becomes the serious concern not only of linguistics but also of philosophers, logicians, psychologist, scientists and literary critics. “Language is our facility to talk. It is the faculty of speech. It is held in common by all human being but a language is a particular code; a set of convention which we operate through the possession of the faculty of speech; and a language is not held in common by all human being but only by those who belong to specific community.
v Definition of Language:-
Linguistics is the study of language and that is why it is imperative for us to know what language is. Language is very complex human phenomenon and all attempt to define it would prove inadequate. But we can say that Language is “an organized nose used in actual social situation Some linguists, however, have been trying to define language in their own ways even though all these definitions have been far from satisfactory. Here are some of these definitions:
1. (Bloch and Trager)A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.
2.
3. (Wardaugh)A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
4. According to an ancient Indian linguist Patanjali, “Language is human expression which is offered out by speech organs.
5. In Encyclopaedia Britannica Vo. 13, language is defined as Language is a system of conventional spoken or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, communicate.
6. Language is a symbol system based on pure or arbitrary conventions... infinitely extendable and modifiable according to the changing needs and conditions of the speakers.(Robins)
7. A language is a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. (Noam Chomsky)
8. Language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.(Hall)
v Characteristics and Features of Language
1. Language is an organization of sound of vocal symbol. Sounds produced from the mouth convey so meaning message. It also means that speech is primary to writing. They may be an language but it may not have a writing system.
2. Language is a Means of Communication: Language is a very important means of communication between humans. A can communicate his or her ideas, emotions, beliefs or feelings to B as they share a common code that makes up the language. No doubt, there are many other means of communication used by humans e.g. gestures, nods, winks, flags, smiles, horns, short-hand, Braille alphabet, mathematical symbols, Morse code, sirens, sketches, maps, acting, miming, dancing etc. But all these systems of communication are extremely limited or they too, in turn, depend upon language only. They are not so flexible, comprehensive, perfect and extensive as language is. Language is so important a form of communication between humans that it is difficult to think of a society without language. It gives shape to people’s thoughts and guides and controls their entire activity. It is a carrier of civilization and culture as human thoughts and philosophy are conveyed from one generation to the other through the medium of language. Language is ubiquitous in the sense that it is present everywhere in all activities. It is as important as the air we breathe and is the most valuable possession of man.
3. Language is Non-instinctive, Conventional: No language was created in a day out of a mutually agreed upon formula by a group of humans. Language is the outcome of evolution and convention. Each generation transmits this convention on to the next. Like all human institutions languages also change and die, grow and expand. Every language then is a convention in a community. It is non-instinctive because it is acquired by human beings. No body gets a language in heritage; he acquires it because he an innate ability.
4. Language is Arbitrary: Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no inherent relation between the words of a language and their meanings or the ideas conveyed by them. There is no reason why a female adult human being be called a woman in English, aurat in Urdu, Zen in Persian and Femine in French. The choice of a word selected to mean a particular thing or idea is purely arbitrary but once a word is selected for a particular referent, it comes to stay as such. It may be noted that had language not been arbitrary, there would have been only one language in the world.
5. Language is Social: Language is a set of conventional communicative signals used by humans for communication in a community. Language in this sense is a possession of a social group, comprising an indispensable set of rules which permits its members to relate to each other, to interact with each other, to co-operate with each other; it is a social institution. Language exists in society; it is a means of nourishing and developing culture and establishing human relations.
6. Language is Symbolic: Language consists of various sound symbols and their graphological counterparts that are employed to denote some objects, occurrences or meaning. These symbols are arbitrarily chosen and conventionally accepted and employed. Words in a language are not mere signs or figures, but symbols of meaning. The intelligibility of a language depends on a correct interpretation of these symbols.
7. Language is Systematic: Although language is symbolic, yet its symbols are arranged in a particular system. All languages have their system of arrangements. Every language is a system of systems. All languages have phonological and grammatical systems, and within a system there are several sub-systems. For example, within the grammatical system we have morphological and syntactic systems, and within these two sub-systems we have systems such as those of plural, of mood, of aspect, of tense, etc.
8. Language is Vocal: Language is primarily made up of vocal sounds only produced by a physiological articulatory mechanism in the human body. In the beginning, it appeared as vocal sounds only. Writing came much later, as an intelligent attempt to represent vocal sounds. Writing is only the graphic representation of the sounds of the language. So the linguists say that speech is primary.
9. Language is Productive and Creative: Language has creativity and productivity. The structural elements of human language can be combined to produce new utterances, which neither the speaker nor his hearers may ever have made or heard before any, listener, yet which both sides understand without difficulty. Language changes according to the needs of society.
10. Language is Both Linguistic and Communicative Competence: A language is an abstract set of psychological principles and sociological consideration that constitute a person’s competence as a speaker in a given situation. In brief, a language is a code which is different from the act of encoding; it is a speaker’s linguistic competence rather than his linguistic performance. But mere linguistic or communicative competence is not enough for communication; it has to be coupled with communicative competence. This is the view of the sociolinguists who stress the use of language according to the occasion and context, the speaker and the listener, the profession and the social status of the speaker and the listener. That language is the result of social interaction established truth.
Language is Human and Structurally Complex: No species other than humans has been endowed with language. Animals cannot acquire human language because of its complex structure and their physical inadequacies. Animals do not have the type of brain which the human beings possess and their articulatory organs are also very much different from those of the human beings. Furthermore any system of animals communication does not make use of the quality of features, that is, of concurrent systems of sound and meaning. Human language is open-ended, extendable and modifiable whereas the animal language is not. The difference between human and animal system of communication is explained below
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